Abstract
Carbapenem resistance among Enterobacteriaceae is a major concern that is increasingly reported worldwide. The objective of this study is to determine the incidence of carbapenem resistance as well as to investigate for carbapenemase-encoding genes among Enterobacteriaceae clinical isolates from cancer patients at different cancer institutes in Egypt. This determination was a cross-sectional study with a total of 135 clinical isolates collected over a period of 1year. All isolates were sub-cultured on ChromID agar and subjected to phenotypic and molecular detection of carbapenemases. Most of the Enterobacteriaceae isolates were MDR with high resistance rates against tested antimicrobials. Overall, the results of PCR assays revealed that 89.62% (121/135) of isolates harbored one or more of the carbapenemase-encoding genes, while phenotypic assays revealed the production of carbapenemases in 68.88% (93/135) of isolates. BlastN analysis against the non-redundant genome sequences available in the GenBank database revealed that the blaNDM-1 gene was the most prevalent genotype of carbapenemases in 93/135 (68.88%), followed by blaOXA-48 44/135 (32.59%), blaOXA-23 42/135 (31.11%), and blaKPC-2 2/135 (1.48%). Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates harbored the highest number of carbapenemase-encoding genes 34/121 (28.09%). The high prevalence of carbapenemases and/or their encoding genes among MDR Enterobacteriaceae bacteria in Egypt is alarming, thus, the management of serious infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae, particularly in cancer patients will be challenging to clinicians. Carbapenemase blaNDM genotype is emerging in cancer healthcare settings in Egypt, which could be the cause of the current increase in carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
